“The Book That Changed My Life”
“The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists” edited by Diane Osen
There are so many reasons to like this book! It will show you why writing matters and why reading matters. It will direct you to some excellent books, both fiction and non-fiction. It will make you think about what matters in life and in the world.
The Book That Changed My Life is a series of fifteen interviews with people who have won or have been finalist for a National Book Award. At the end of each interview is a list of works written by the interviewee as well as a list of books that influenced him or her, that shaped the writer’s life.
Each author, without being didactic, ends up telling us, in some way, why books matter. Here’s a great example from Barry Lopez’s interview:
“I believe you can say that most English-language literature today is about community—what makes it coherent? What makes it fly apart? Can it be put back together? And I think this literature is generated by a fear that disintegration of communities—families, neighborhoods, tribes—means an end to a fundamental part of human life. . . . look at the way in which we in this country have indulged ourselves in extreme notions of individual privilege, and what that has done to our social fabric—that’s something I want to write about.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the fate of the culture of which I am a part, or about how writing a story can help. If, in essays or short fiction, you can bring back the intensity of something forgotten or vaguely understood, by sharpening the image and making it succinct, then you’re helping. A young person reading a story of yours could be inspired to attempt any number of things. An adult who has been abandoned by a lover or a child could read a story and find the reason that he or she wants to get up off the floor. All of those are good reasons to write. You’re helping people do the things that are far more important than literature.”
If you are an aspiring writer, you need to read this book!
Add comment November 17, 2009
“The Hunger Games” and “The Maze Runner”
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I’m curious about why so many YA books—popular ones anyway—are about dystopias, lousy futures worlds where everything is wrong, the opposite of utopias. In the YA version of dystopia, the adults have sold out the kids. They have wrecked the world and are using the kids, mercilessly, either as experiments in making the world better or as scapegoats for the ills of society. As our current trend in American society leans to ‘helicopter parents’—those who hover over and meet every whim as well of need of their children, I wonder if teens’ understanding of the havoc we wreck on our environment and the potential this has for their futures is the fuel behind this trend.
Two books that I’ve just read on dystopias are The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games.
In The Maze Runner, Thomas wakes up in an elevator, very groggy and with no memory of his past—no sense of family, home, nothing. He’s not sure how old he is. He learns that he is in the Glade, an area surrounded by a vast maze with moving walls. About sixty boys live in this new home, with one new boy being deposited each month in the elevator. All are in the same predicament with no memories, no idea why they are there or who has done this to them. Life there is so bad that when Thomas asks questions, the only answer he gets is a sort of ‘You’ll see.’
Although the constant use of ‘you’ll see’ and ‘you don’t want to know’ is probably meant to add suspense to the novel, it actually pulls like a weight attached to the reader. Many pages in, you feel that you are not moving forward—you’re just reading the same thing over and over. However, there’s enough that’s strange and weird in the book to keep you going. Each night, doors from the maze open and hideous “Grievers”, half live, half mechanical, come out. If a boy is stung by one and manages to survive, he goes through a torturous changing that brings back some of his memory. Because of this, the boys are desperately looking for a way out, running the maze during daylight and mapping out the changes in the walls, looking for a pattern.
Soon after Thomas arrives, so does the first girl in the Glade—and with her the beginning of the end. The boys must find a way out to the world of the Creators, not knowing if their changes there are any better.
In The Hunger Games, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen provides for her family—a twelve year old sister and a mother—after her father is killed in a mining accident. The family lives in a future nation, Panem, which is situated in North America. There, the Capitol demands punishment and yearly sacrifice from the twelve districts that had once rebelled against it. And here again, the sacrifice is children. Each district has a yearly lottery in which one girl and one boy, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, is chosen to participate in The Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers when her twelve-year-old sister is chosen. The unlucky boy, Peeta, is someone who had helped Katniss years earlier.
Taking place in an arena where the environment is controlled, the games are a fight to the death. Yet the pregame object is to make a good impression on the audience (all citizens of Panem are forced to watch) and accrue ‘sponsors,’ thus increasing the changes of winning the games. This is a sort of “Survivor” gone bad—and believe me, the book is an indictment of our love of reality TV and our predilection for violence. There are stylists for the contestants and the deep irony that these kids are treated to dizzying elegance and luxury just before they are sent out to kill one another, while many, especially in Katniss’s District 12 (formerly Appalachia, an area of the country synonymous, for centuries, with extreme poverty) have been days from starvation.
Peeta has always cared deeply for Katniss and this increases the suspense. Only one contestant can survive. What is the pair to do on this shifting moral ground? If you wonder about the difficulties of being fully human and fully present in the face of so much evil in the world, you’ll love this book. Then again, if you just want something that’s fast-moving and action-packed, you’ll love it as well.
If you like The City of Ember, The Giver or The House of the Scorpion, I think you’ll enjoy both of these books. If you are short on time and have to pick one, make it The Hunger Games, which is a better piece of writing and a tighter story.
Add comment November 13, 2009
“My Brother”
My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid
“When I was young, younger than I am now, I started to write about my own life and I came to see that this act saved my life. When I heard about my brother’s illness and his dying, I knew, instinctively, that to understand it, or to make an attempt at understanding his dying, and not to die with him, I would write about it.”
So, Jamaica Kincaid has written a small book about the death from AIDS of her youngest brother. At 198 pages, this memoir comes so close to that 200 page minimum for a book project that you might get your teacher to overlook those last two pages. After all, Kincaid is an established literary writer and she has all the stuff your teachers hope you’ll enjoy in literature—a style of her own and the many literary elements you are taught and tested on, especially wonderful figurative language. This book is as much a writing exercise as it is a memoir, as much the story of Kincaid’s love/hate relationship with her mother as her relationship with her brother.
I first came in contact with Kincaid’s writing through The New Yorker, which was regularly publishing her short works. I loved her style and would always check to see if she had something published in the weekly magazine. If not, I would toss it aside to read later. If so, I sat down and immersed myself in the story immediately. That said, I’d also like to note that her style would be a lot of fun to parody, if you should get such an assignment. While everyone else in the class is imitating Hemingway and Faulkner, you can try something like this passage from My Brother:
“It must have been wonderful in Miami then, but I will never really know, I can only repeat what other people said; they said that it was wonderful in Miami and they were glad to be there, or they wanted to be there. But I myself was in Miami, and I found Miami not to be in the tropical zone that I was from, and yet not in the temperate zone where I now live; Miami was in between, but its in-betweenness did not make me long for it. I missed the place I now live in, I missed snow, I missed my own house that was surrounded by snow, I missed my husband, the father of my children, and they were all in the house surrounded by snow. I wanted to go home.”
Add comment November 3, 2009
The Courage to Grieve by Judy Tatelbaum
The Courage to Grieve was donated to our library, and I became interested in it. I thought it might be helpful to students who are grieving over the death of a loved one. It’s quite short and covers both the grief experience and the recovery process.
Tatelbaum starts each chapter with a quote from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, a book clearly meaningful to her. She tells us that the problem with the western view of death is that we deny it or are obsessively afraid of it. Her goal in the book is to help those in grief to a “healthy awareness and acceptance of death as a natural reality that gives our lives context and meaning.”
Beginning with the mourning period—which varies depending on individuals and their connection to the deceased, Tatelbaum describes grief as a “time of convalescence . . .for facing the loss and all the feelings that the loss evokes in order to at least begin to heal the great wound created by the death of a loved one.” She takes us through shock, suffering and disorganization, aftershocks and reorganization, to the recovery process that includes helping others with grief and recovery from grief. She has set aside a chapter for children’s grief, which includes adolescents’ grief.
If you are looking for some help in dealing with your grief, The Courage to Grieve may be an option.
Add comment October 27, 2009
“So Sexy So Soon”
“So Sexy So Soon” by Diane E. Levin, Ph.D. and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D.
I don’t think the blurb on the book jacket—which uses examples straight out of the 1970s and 1980s for parent strategies to counteract the assault of a sexualized society—does justice to this book. So Sexy So Soon really is up-to-date and helpful. It doesn’t mince words, but shows immediately how deeply sexualized America society is and just how young are the children affected by popular media. For example, these are selections from the first paragraphs of the introduction:
“A four-year-old girl, in the dramatic play area of her preschool, begins swaying her hips and singing, “Baby, I’m your slave. I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave.’ When her teacher goes over to talk to her about it, she volunteers that she learned the song from her eight-year-old sister. After doing a bit of research, the teacher discovers that the words are from a highly popular Justin Timberlake song.”
“A six-year-old casually asks at dinner, ‘What’s a blow job?’ Before his parents can respond, his ten-year-old sister knowingly screeches, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe he asked that!’”
“An eight-year-old boy comes home and reports to his father that he didn’t know what to do when his friend showed him pornography on the Internet during a playdate at the friend’s house.”
“A furor erupts at a bar mitzvah when two girls are caught performing oral sex on the thirteen-year-old bar mitzvah boy in a ladies’ room stall.”
So Sexy So Soon discusses why children are so sexualized in American society. One of the big reasons is that it sells—it’s a marketing tool, which has always been true for adult products. (I’m getting pretty darn old, and can remember a commercial from my childhood for Noxzema shaving cream that had a beautifully voluptuous girl saying, “Take it off. Take it all off!” with strip-tease music in the background.) However, children’s products were advertised to appeal to kids’ fantasies. Ironically (for the kids at least—not the sellers), “Products are not intended to sell children on sex—they are intended to sell them on shopping.”
“’Teach seven-year-olds that sexual expression is a matter of accessorizing and you’ve secured a lifetime of purchases in the lingerie department. Disassociate sex from non-market feelings (pleasure, desire, intimacy) and associate it instead with consumable superficialities, and you’ll not only keep the rabble in line, you’ll have them lined up at the mall.’” (Cynthia Peters, commentator for ZMag.com)
So Sexy So Soon discusses how parents can work through the onslaught. There are a few chapters on teens as well, and these could (should?) appeal to high school students. And if any of you, as high school students, are going to approach the topic of advertising or of sexualizing children as part of a controversial issues report, don’t pass this book up! If you are a teacher or parent of young children, this is a good read.
1 comment September 11, 2009
Dear Author: Letters of Hope
Dear Author is a wonderful, compact book of letters from kids and teens to authors. The teens pour their hearts out, telling the authors how their books have helped them, how some books have even saved lives.
You’ll recognize some of your favorite authors. A teen girl writes to Laurie Halse Anderson about her experience of being raped by a guy at her school, and compares it to the book Speak. A girl writes to Lois Duncan, author of many young adult mysteries and of the non-fiction book Who Killed My Daughter? Her own stepfather killed her two little brothers and then committed suicide. She credits the book Who Killed My Daughter? with saving her life, but asks the question why? Why do these things happen? Ms. Duncan’s answer is very moving.
Many other authors answer letters in this book, including one of my favorites, Chris Crutcher. Please read this—it’ll take an hour or two, but the impressions left by the authors’ deep sympathy for young adults will last much longer.
Add comment August 18, 2009
Freshman Honors Summer 2009: “The Alchemist” and “The Secret Life of Bees”
201 comments July 8, 2009
“The Count of Monte Cristo” Student Reviews 2009
The following reviews by COHS students are on “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas.
Genre: Historical
Pages: 1312
Reviewer: Ron W.
The story begins when the main character Edmond Dantes and Fernand Mondego land on the island of Elba to get medical help for there captain. Dantes meets Napoleon Bonaparte and is given a letter which is to be given to a friend back at port, but the friend will find him to get the letter. Mondego who is jealous of Dantes and his fiancés Mercedes relationship turns him in to the police. After Dantes explains himself to the head prosecutor Gerard Villefort who decides to send Dantes the life imprisonment in the Château d’If. After befriending the priest the priest teaches Dantes to read and write. They start to dig a tunnel out of the prison but the priest is caught in a cave in and dies Dantes then escapes by pretending to be the priests dead body. After escaping he befriends a group of buccaneers and sails back the his home port. After he and another man by a boat they sail to Monte Cristo a small island and find the hidden treasure. When they return home Dantes starts calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo. While he is doing this he is slowly ruining all of the people who hurt hims lifes. Until all of them are in jail and Mondego is dead.
My opinion of the Count of Monte Cristo is that it was a very adventurous and suspenseful book. The storyline was odd but all together the long read was worth the effort. If I had to recommend a book it would be this one.
1. The author wrote this book I alive so that you can learn that you can’t trust all your friends even the close ones.
2. The theme is you can’t judge a book by its cover even if you have already read it.
3the author supports the thesis by using a lot of good quotes and a really suspenseful storyline.
4. The issue is Dantes going to jail for carrying a letter to a friend of napoleons and it is resolved when dantes pays every one back for their deeds.
1 comment June 3, 2009
“The Man in the Iron Mask” Student Reviews 2009
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 588 of the story, and 626 pages including explanatory notes.
Reviewer: Christian I.
The Man in the iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas is an excellent novel. It is about King Louis, and he is making France fall apart from his poor ruling as king. Three retired musketeers want to get rid of the king, after he put one of the musketeer’s sons on the front line of war. D’Artagnan, the musketeer captain, thinks otherwise, and is trying to defend the king. The other three find another heir to the throne, and that is the man in the iron mask. The man in the iron mask is King Louis’s twin brother, Phillipe. The musketeers then train Phillipe to fight, just in case if he needs to defend himself. King Louis then hosts a party, and the musketeers make the switch. Although, a loyal friend of the King breaks him out of jail, and Louis resumes being king. Parthos and Arimas the escape to Belle-Isle, where the King sends an attack. D’Artagnan resigns from the military, and helps his friends. Parthos dies during the battle of Belle-Isle, and D’Artagnan died a few years later from a war with Holland. At the end, the only original musketeer alive is Aramis.
As I said in the summary, I think The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas is excellent. It has an action filled story with a hint of mystery. This novel is considered a world classic, and is a French novel. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good book to read.
1. The author wrote The Man in the Iron Mask to show how two brothers can be different and what they will do for their country.
2. The theme of the book is right versus wrong. The king is a tyrant, and his twin brother (the man in the iron mask) knows what is right for France.
3. The author supports the thesis in many ways. In the book, three musketeers have to do a wrong action, to save France from the tyrant. They also did what was right by not killing the tyrant. D’Artagnan conflicts whether or not to help his friends or the king. The author uses many other examples to support this thesis.
4. The main issue is that the king, Louis, is a tyrant. Three of the original 4 musketeers had enough of the king’s tyranny. They discover that there is another heir to the throne, and they secretly switch the two, making France have a fair and kind king.
Add comment June 3, 2009
“Gulliver’s Travels” Student Reviews 2009
The following reviews by COHS students are on “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift.
Genre: Wild frontiers and exotic lands/ European historical fiction
Pages: 271
Reviewer: Andrea Z.
In the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, the reader is introduced to the main character named Lemuel Gulliver who goes on extraordinary adventures. The first location he goes to is the island of Lilliput. There he meets people that are about six inches tall. He learns their customs, and becomes friends with the king, but he eventually departs from this strange land. Once he returns home he again sets sail and becomes stranded on the land Brobdingnag. He soon discovers that this land is inhabited by giants. He becomes friends with a farmer and he starts making a profit out of Gulliver. He is soon sold to the queen and is taken care of by the farmer’s daughter. After about two years of living there an eagle captures him and drops him in the ocean where he is rescued by his own kind. One again he ventures off inot the world and goes to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan. Laputa is a flying island and the people there are devoted to music and mathematics. Then he basically goes to the other places just to get back home which he eventually does. Despite his past mishaps he once again goes out to sea and lands on Houyhnhnms, a land where horses are the rulers. He eventually leaves this land by force and once he arrives back home he is unable to live a normal life.
I really enjoyed reading this novel. The author uses a lot of detail in describing the places Gulliver went. I still wonder why Swift capitalizes random words but it was a great new experience for me. The adventures the main character went on were very strange but life changing at the same time. What I learned from this novel is to accept people for who they are. I also learned that everyone is different. I highly recommend this book to others.
1.The author’s purpose in writing this book was to inform the readers on how different people are and how people in other lands have customs we are not used to.
2. The theme of this novel is the limits of human understanding and the thesis of the novel is understanding different customs.
3. The author supports the thesis by learning the ways of other people. “Learned men appointed to teach the author their language” (30)
4. The only issue in this book is trying to fit in and the author solves this by learning the inhabitants’ ways.
6 comments June 3, 2009
